Chapter 158: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 158: Against the Current, Testing Into the School's Top Five

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Although Wang Xiaohua nodded in agreement to Wang Erhai, promising not to hold a grudge against his father Wang Changgen, actually letting go in his heart — how could that be easy?

He actually understood the grand principles better than anyone: as a child one must know gratitude, must empathize with parents' hardships; but when reality falls on oneself, when one is hurt by one's parents again and again, that feeling — it truly isn't something that can be so lightly released.

Let alone releasing it now.

Even when Wang Xiaohua grows into an adult, every time he recalls the events of his youth, he still will not be able to understand his parents' actions back then!

If he were rebellious, if he went bad, if he grew weary of study, and was beaten, scolded, and restricted in every way by his parents — then when he grew up he would absolutely have no complaints about his parents' behavior.

What a pity: he was not rebellious, did not go bad, did not grow weary of study; on the contrary, from a tender age he was frighteningly sensible, keenly aware that studying was his only road out of the countryside, so he spared no effort in learning, in making himself more outstanding — yet on this road of hard study the greatest obstacle turned out to be his own parents; how could he possibly let go?

Wang Changgen has not yet realized that what he smashed was not merely a small MP3 player; he also smashed the father-son relationship between him and Wang Xiaohua.

Wang Xiaohua did not become degenerate and weary of study because of this matter, but that does not mean Wang Changgen's actions were right; one can only say this child Wang Xiaohua is truly resilient — if it were another family's child, striving to study yet obstructed and misunderstood by parents at every turn, they would likely have rebelled and quit long ago, going straight to mix with those social youths outside school who dye their hair garish colors.

Yet Wang Xiaohua did not; the desire in his heart to become better grew even stronger.

That stemmed from the driving force to escape his original family.

He vowed in his heart: he must test into a good university, escape these ignorant and foolish parents.

He had already been delayed by them enough; he did not want to be dragged by them any longer, unable to climb out of this mountain pit.

In the days that followed, Wang Xiaohua went with Wang Erhai to dig poria for another week, earning seven or eight hundred yuan.

Then he no longer went to dig poria.

Although he had not earned enough for braces, he no longer wanted to correct his teeth so intensely.

He wanted even more to seize the time to study English.

He took his second brother's advice and secretly bought another MP3, downloading English learning materials again.

Every day he deliberately slept very late before getting up; only after Wang Changgen and Li Xiulan had gone to work did he rise, then read English aloud at full voice.

By reading English aloud, comparing his pronunciation against the audio in the MP3, constantly correcting his own pronunciation, Wang Xiaohua seemed to gradually find the knack for learning English, gradually regaining his former confidence in study.

He could clearly feel his language sense had improved greatly; without deliberately fussing over so-called grammar, he could sometimes produce the correct answer, as if he simply knew the right answer naturally.

Wang Xiaohua shared his study method with his second brother, feeling it was very useful; he wanted to pull his second brother into studying together.

Yet Wang Erhai refused.

He would rather go into the mountains to dig poria than stay cooped up at home reading that chicken-intestine English.

Wang Xiaohua could only smile wryly in helplessness.

In a blink it arrived: the day the high school entrance exam results were announced.

Wang Xiaohua's exam results were surprisingly good — he scored seven hundred and some points, ranking ninth in the whole school!

This was the first time in his three years of junior high that he squeezed into the school's top ten!

With this score, entering the Special Elite Class in high school should be no problem.

Yet Wang Xiaohua did not feel particularly happy about it.

He had a loftier goal; he believed that as long as he conquered the English problem, once in high school he would certainly achieve even better results than in junior high!

When it comes down to it, junior high was delayed by English!

After entering high school he would start a brand-new life, discard the inner demons English brought during junior high; his goal was not top twenty in the school, not top ten, but first place in the whole school.

He had not taken first place in the whole school for a very long time.

Recalling his primary school days, almost every exam he took first place without suspense.

That seems like a distant time, but carefully counting, it was only four or five years ago.

Time flows hurriedly.

In a blink it reached September, the start of school.

The county town has only two high schools; the one Wang Xiaohua enrolled in was the same as his second brother's.

First, because at new student enrollment his second brother could give him some looking-after, letting him adapt to high school life quickly.

Second, because this high school is known for strict academic atmosphere, completely different from the neighboring high school's free-spirited teaching style.

Wang Xiaohua did not come to high school to play; his goal was very clear: to test into a good university.

Everything indeed turned out as Wang Xiaohua thought: on the first day of new student term, he discovered he had been assigned into the Special Elite Class.

In the Special Elite Class that gathered nearly all the county's top students, Wang Xiaohua's initial ranking was still not high; his student number was 25, meaning his score placed him only in the middle of the class.

But high school is a brand-new start; one cannot keep measuring by junior high scores.

High school mathematics is at least one dimension harder than junior high.

Junior high math could yield good scores through rote memorization, while high school math requires beginning to emphasize logical thinking.

And logical thinking happens to be what a naturally clever boy like Wang Xiaohua possesses.

So on the first high school monthly exam, his math scored 140.

This pulled a wide gap between him and other classmates, especially those girls weak in math, who were left even further behind.

Plus he had crammed English during summer vacation, so this monthly exam he no longer lost so much ground in English; although still not at the very top level, his English score on the first monthly exam also reached 120-some points.

This was much better than in his junior high days!

Because English no longer dragged him down so badly, this monthly exam Wang Xiaohua surprisingly squeezed into the top ten of the whole grade.

This was a very good start, giving Wang Xiaohua a huge confidence boost.

He had not gained a sense of achievement in study for a very long time.

The sense of achievement this monthly exam brought let him once again experience that heart-pounding joy and excitement.

And this joy and excitement brought him a motivation far better than the effect of his parents' suppressive style of education.

Wang Xiaohua, riding on this joy, continued to bury his head in study.

In the blink of an eye the midterm exam arrived, and he actually tested into the top five of the whole school.

He was very happy about this, but he would no longer transmit this joy back to the home.

He would no longer speak to the home about any matter concerning himself, whether good or bad, he would not speak of it again.

So on the weekend the midterm exam results came out, after he returned home, toward his parents he still said not a word, revealed not a shred of emotion, and aside from eating meals, he went back to the bedroom to study.

However his second brother Wang Erhai could not keep things to himself; his result of fifth in the whole school had long since been posted on the Honor Roll by the school, his second brother knew of this matter, and after returning home, at dinner he began to boast to the parents:

"Dad, Mom, do you know? Little Brother, this time in the midterm exam, he placed fifth in the whole school, damn impressive!"

Li Xiulan heard this, and was happy beyond measure:

"That's wonderful, tomorrow I'll kill a chicken to celebrate! Our Xiaohua hasn't scored this well in a long time!"

Wang Zhanggen's face was also beaming with a smile, but the words from his mouth were hard to comprehend:

"Looks like during summer vacation, smashing his MP3 was an absolutely correct choice; what I smashed was not only his MP3, I even smashed him into enlightenment, only then could he achieve such a good result! Otherwise he'd still be like before, muddling along, neither up nor down, half a bucket of water!"

Wang Zhanggen actually thought Wang Xiaohua's improved grades were all his own merit!

This made Wang Erhai, listening, a bit at a loss whether to cry or laugh; he really wanted to say something, but his lips moved and in the end he said nothing, because he feared that if he spoke the truth, this tyrant-like father would get angry again and go smash his little brother's MP3.

As for Wang Xiaohua, he was expressionless, his heart without ripples, as if he had not heard Wang Zhanggen's words at all.

He finished the rice in his bowl, put down his bowl and chopsticks:

"I'm done eating, going back to the room."

Then he stood up and left; from start to finish, he never once looked at Wang Zhanggen.

……